Since January of last year, protesters have gathered every Sunday at the corner of Manchester and Weidman road. Standing by a faulty crosswalk on a crumbling traffic island, many hold up signs protesting the Trump administration. To an observer driving along Manchester, these may seem solely directed at Trump; however, for the protesters, all eyes are on Missouri congresswoman Ann Wagner.

Sunset Hills resident Amy Minton contacted Wagner regarding concerns about the Trump administration around February of last year. After being met with silence from the congresswoman, she and a friend began protesting right outside her office.

Minton isn’t the only one who has been met with silence from Wagner, however. Back in 2018, PolitiFact could find no record of Ann Wagner attending any public in-person events in her district. Since then this has held true, with many voters being met with silence from their representative. Though she has attended private events in the region and held “tele-town halls” during her six terms as St. Louis County’s congresswoman, she has yet to attend an in-person event in her district.

In many parts of the country, no-show Republicans in congress are attracting attention from Democrats.

“This is the most local we can get, going to our congressional [representative’s] office. Unfortunately, she has refused to meet with her constituents for thirteen years now,” Minton said. “If this is as close as we’re going to get to actually get her to listen to our concerns, then we’re gonna make a big stink about it.”

Since then, they have met every Sunday no matter the weather—even in snow, they have brought shovels.

“The weather was terrible,” organizer Cathy Blair remarked about one particular snow day. “I brought ski poles just to get down that hill.”

The protests have grown in size and attracted attention from sources such as KMOV as well as passersby.

The attention from drivers is audible, with honks and hollers erupting frequently from passing vehicles.

“[Drivers] see us, sometimes they just pull over and say, can I join you?” Blair said.

Blair said that many people in her personal life learned about the protests after seeing them on Manchester.

“We make it clear that we are angry, though we’re joyful in our righteous anger,” Blair said.

Generally, these protests are pretty small. “It’s all grassroots,” Blair said, noting that there isn’t a strict organizational structure for the group.

Last Tuesday, however, protest turnout was far larger.

“Tuesday was not the ‘Where’s Ann Wagner’ protest. It was national,” Blair explained. “It was a lobby day for impeachment.”

The lobby day was sponsored by 50501, Flare, and Citizen’s Impeachment, though at Weidman it snowballed into another protest.

“We were ostensibly supposed to be contacting our US representatives because they were going to be out of Washington and in their offices,” Blair explained. “We were supposed to go to their offices and lobby, but Ann Wagner didn’t let us in. We went through a whole online application, and they didn’t answer.”

Blair and others were surprised at the last minute turnout on Tuesday, which, according to Blair, had seventy-two people in attendance.

Rita Fitzgerald, a frequent protester at this spot, urges political participation at the local level. Specifically, she urges people to fill out a full ballot and vote for their representatives in addition to voting for propositions. According to her, more effective change would be enacted if more citizens, especially young ones, were involved in electing local representatives.

In November of 2024, Missouri voters approved, by popular vote, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, which enshrined abortion rights in the state’s constitution. State politicians, who are generally very partisan, have blocked the amendment temporarily and are currently attempting to roll it back entirely.

Many Where’s Ann protesters support the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, which seeks to protect democracy in Missouri from such government holdups.

In Fitzgerald’s view, protests like Where’s Ann help to inform citizens about current political issues. “Being in more purple to red areas forces those passing by our protests to read the signs,” she said in an email. 

This week, the city demolished the islands where protesters usually congregate to begin construction for repairs and pedestrian improvements. It is unknown when the crosswalk will be usable in the future, however the protesters are unlikely to be deterred by such developments.

With campaigns for primary elections underway, democratic representatives are already racing to de-seat Wagner, citing many of the concerns shared by the protesters.

The lead-up to this year’s midterm elections have caused controversy, with allegations of partisan gerrymandering and political misconduct in Missouri and other states.

For students and new voters, Fitzgerald recommends using Turbovote.org, a service which makes the voting process easier by sending reminders for upcoming elections, facilitating voter registration, filing absentee ballots, and providing information on voting.